Jonathan Becker, DO, the medical director overseeing Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital’s electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) program, spends a fair amount of time explaining to patients what electroconvulsive therapy is not.

The first annual LaryHacks, a competition to design innovative devices, apps or methods to assist laryngectomy patients who have had their voice boxes removed, has been set for Thursday, April 12, 5 to 8 p.m., in the Wond’ry, 2414 Highland Ave. in the Vanderbilt University Engineering and Science building.

Bobby Otten has been named senior director of Space and Facilities Planning. In this new role, Otten will oversee ongoing construction projects at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, planning of new construction and renovation of existing Medical Center space.

Multi-platinum entertainer and longtime supporter of Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt Dierks Bentley recently received the first star on the hospital’s newly created “Walk of Champions,” presented by Live Nation.

A 2011 cicada swarm is leading to transinstitutional research at the Vanderbilt Institute for Surgery and Engineering (VISE) and Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) to develop a surgical planning tool to help restore speech for people with vocal fold paralysis.

Fourth-year medical students Katie DesPrez and Joe Wick met at orientation during their first year at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.

MCL-1 is a member of the BCL-2 family of proteins important for blocking apoptosis, or programmed cell death. Many types of cancer cells escape the body’s effort to kill them by overexpressing MCL-1.